The Curse of Being Hated Has Been Lifted

4 – Thief

‘What’s gotten into him, anyway?’

Suppressing even his nature to win the bet with Anna?

Or does Anna have other circumstances unknown to her?

Anna decided to bury the questions for now.

It would be half-solved when she checked in a week.

‘Even if Logan is the target…’

The work leader, who drove away the hardworking one without even paying the reward, didn’t look good.

“Can we talk for a moment?”

That night near the castle wall, a man’s scream echoed, and the next morning, there was a money bag in Logan’s place.

*****

‘Why is this girl suddenly acting up?’

After going to school as usual and a little while later, Anna had a very excited look on her face as she looked at Logan.

By the way, here, “as usual” meant that she was teased by a student passing by, had a pigeon suddenly peck her head, or experienced some light teasing about three times while passing by.

‘Does she have the confidence to win in the bet?’

It wasn’t a completely wrong guess.

Tonight, Logan was determined to somehow get money from the workshop leader, no matter what.

“You don’t look very happy, do you?”

After staring at Logan for a while, Anna approached him with a puzzled expression.

“I don’t have much reason to be happy.”

He replied vaguely and took out a wooden plank he had picked up from the ground to use as a substitute for a textbook, causing even more confusion on Anna’s face.

“You don’t have a reason to be happy?”

“Of course not.”

If Logan could be happy just because he didn’t have a big tease on the way to school, his personality wouldn’t be so sullen.

“That can’t be true.”

With an unresolved look on her face, Anna returned to her seat.

The professor had entered the classroom to start the lesson.

Normally, even during the lesson, Logan would have been teased several times, but these days, the professors didn’t tease Logan much either.

It was because he couldn’t stand the feeling of crawling and teasing him, and he explained his rightful position so convincingly that even those who couldn’t help but believe his words, even with a solemn oath, didn’t want to bother him for no reason.

So, lunchtime came safely.

There were a few attacks against him, but unlike usual, he was able to defend himself safely.

“The window is broken! It must be Logan…”

“I didn’t even go over there.”

“My brooch is missing!”

“Why are you looking at me? I’m not someone who would steal a brooch or anything like that.”

“The restroom hasn’t been cleaned!”

“The academy may have assigned me restroom cleaning as a punishment, but I haven’t done anything wrong. So, there’s no need for me to clean the restroom.”

‘The oath of mana is more comfortable than I thought?’

Feeling absolute trust in his own words was a rather new sensation.

People like Anna probably thought that they could receive this kind of trust, like the oath of mana, without having to use risky skills. Indeed, the world was unfair.

“Are you going to have lunch today?”

“I thought he just had a bad temper, but he’s also unlucky.”

Anna asked the same question yesterday as well.

To the exact same question, Logan clearly stated, ‘I can’t afford to eat.’

“I won’t be able to afford lunch today.”

Logan’s casual remark once again left Anna with a question on her face.

“You don’t have money?”

“Of course not.”

Was he trying to boast about having a lot of money?

“Was there anything strange on your desk when you came to school this morning?”

“Although there were a few new doodles, I’ve never seen anything like it being taken.”

Anna was at a loss for words.

“I’m sure I left it there yesterday, didn’t I?”

There was no way Logan could be lying.

He had sworn on his honor.

So that meant every word he said was true…

“Someone must have stolen it.”

Taking something from the desk was enough to be considered theft.

In fact, just a while ago, Logan almost got accused of being a thief.

“Sigh…”

Anna piled on her mana thickly to rid herself of the overwhelming disgust that seemed to cling to her body.

The overpowering revulsion emanating from Logan’s body made her feel sorry for him just by looking at him, and it was a formidable force that made him seem less human, but for some reason, she felt a little less repulsed when she wrapped herself tightly in mana.

It was also because she had always enveloped her whole body in mana whenever she had deep conversations with Logan, that she was able to have a normal conversation with him.

It was not as if she was physically weaker, mentally feeble, or inferior to Logan, but she knew that if she had a deep conversation with him, she wouldn’t be able to bear the revulsion and would end up burning his body to ashes.

In fact, until last year, Logan had a record of being assaulted several times a day by a senior at school.

Logan’s realization that it was better to act like a dog when dealing with someone stronger was actually not effective against someone stronger.

“I have something to tell you. Yesterday, I received your overdue wages from the foreman and put them on your desk in the early morning.”

“You’re unnecessarily kind.”

“But I came in the morning, and it wasn’t there. Someone must have taken it.”

Logan let out a deep sigh.

“How nice would it be to just stay still?”

The phrase “even if it’s only half” didn’t come out for no reason.

If Anna hadn’t wasted her time on unnecessary consideration, she would have been able to collect money from the foreman today and have a normal meal tomorrow.

But since she did something unnecessary and turned three days of effort into nothing, it was inevitable that Logan’s mood would worsen, even if it wasn’t intentional.

“Oh well, nothing can be done.”

Logan stood up from his seat.

“Where are you going?”

“To catch the culprit.”

The person who would pick up the money that was put up before anyone else went to school.

Only one person came to Logan’s mind.

“Aria, let’s go have lunch together.”

“No, I’m going to starve for lunch today.”

“Aria’s skipping lunch? Something must be wrong.”

“Well, it happens to me too.”

After casually talking to her friends, the girl quietly started reading her book and saw a man in her eyes.

He was a bit lean, but had a well-proportioned figure.

Not quite a pretty boy, but his harmony of lines and angles was significant enough for anyone to call him a handsome young man.

Plus, the mystery given by his white hair and blue eyes.

If she were an ordinary girl, it wouldn’t be strange for her to admire and long for him, but there was only one feeling that she felt when she saw a man.

“Asrian, what are you doing here?”

A fierce energy began emanating from her body.

Even among the second-year students, her formidable power was quite significant. The waves she emitted were so powerful that Logan, bound by the oath of mana, couldn’t withstand them – it wasn’t the kind of nature he could endure, having half of his mana restrained.

“I have something to discuss.”

However, Logan, who had weathered the energy of numerous people over the past year, could endure her energy as if it were nothing.

“What? You want to talk with me? Seems like you’ve finally thought about apologizing to me?”

Her hatred was several times deeper compared to others.

If Anna hadn’t been behind Logan, she would have grabbed him by the collar right away.

“No, I don’t have any intention of apologizing to you. I came to get paid.”

Aria’s body flinched.

“You’re talking as if you left money for me or something.”

“Yeah, that’s right. The money taken from my spot this morning.”

Judging by the reaction, it became even more certain.

She seemed unfamiliar with lies, probably because she spent the whole day dealing with black market goods.

“That’s absurd…”

“I won’t ask you to hand over the textbook. Just give me the money. It’s the payment for three days of my labor.”

“I don’t see money earned from working for three days…”

Aria confessed to her guilt without much thought.

“Oh… No! Anyway, I didn’t steal your money.”

Under normal circumstances, Logan might not have had a suitable response to Aria, but today he had an unreliable but somewhat reassuring ally.

“In the end, you’re saying you stole it.”

“What’s up with you again? Why are you wrapping yourself up so tightly in that energy?”

“Right now, who I am doesn’t seem important, just hand over the money. It’s the money I got for saving you.”

Anna wasn’t particularly friendly to Logan, but it felt bad that someone else was taking the money that also had a bit of her effort.

Aria, who had considered committing another crime, admitted her guilt and handed the money to Logan because Anna’s gaze was quite pitiful.

“But do I really need to take the textbook?”

“Not urgently. You probably don’t even have it with you right now.”

Logan, who was leaving with the money, said something strange.

“Oh, and I didn’t break your sword.”

What nonsense.

You admitted it then.

Once again, Aria’s boiling resentment surged. That afternoon, Aria fell into confusion when she heard the rumor that Logan, by the oath of mana, couldn’t lie.